This was fantastic! I usually don't enjoy police procedurals but the dual perspectives of the police and Lucy were very well written and hooked me from the beginning. The end was very intense and SO surprising!!

I’m a huge fan of the author and always look forward to reading her new releases, she has a great style and her books are always pacey and exciting for me to read. This one is set in the same world as The Nothing Man (which I think is her best book) and there are some super fun Easter Eggs for that and her other titles here that were clever. This is told via multiple POVs including that of the man who is abducting the women and of course his chapters were my favorites. You also hear from Lucy, whose sister is missing as well as Angela, who works for the Missing Persons unit and all of these perspectives made things move along swiftly. There were some really great and super surprising twists that I didn’t see coming and I was holding my breath at the end. As strong as this one was for me I was hoping for a more solid ending but overall this was great.

5 STARS!!!!! I love this quote from the author in the afterward. “ Even though the internet has never been able to prove this, I’m convinced I once heard the great Irish writer Edna O’Brien tell an interviewer that she wrote as a way to grieve for what she read in the headlines. I think I write as a way to solve the mysteries I find in them. Sometimes – tragically, infuriatingly, inexplicably – fiction is the only place we have to go for answers.”Catherine Ryan Howard Dublin, 17 January 2022
Your sister has been kidnapped, and so night after night, you go out and try to get in the cars of men who may have taken her, in a desperate hope for answers. What I find so enjoyable about Catherine Ryan Howard’s books is her ability to play with time. Her writing makes you think you are in one place, but really, time is very different than you thought. This ability makes for some, serious twists that I could never see coming, but bring the whole story together. One quick note, I read the Kindle arc version of this book. At about 78% there is a change from Angela’s setting to a new setting. There isn’t a skipped space or an indication of a setting switch, so I found myself going back several times to try and figure out what I was missing. It comes together in the end, but just a heads up, the caravan is not associated with Angela. Thank you so much for to NetGalley, the publisher, and especially Catherine Ryan Howard. Reading a new book from you is one of my favorite pastimes

This is my new favorite book from Catherine Ryan Howard. I love how it’s in the same universe as The Nothing Man. All of the POVs were great and my favorite was definitely the perspective of the unknown killer.

The Trap starts a little slow but builds to a fast pace as you get toward the end as things really come together. It’s a fun and entertaining story that is unique and has some surprising twists. I highly recommend this book for thriller fans who want to have a fun read.

Another page turner from Catherine Ryan Howard! This book was very enjoyable and the ending was unexpected. I was not expecting that twist! Catherine Ryan Howard has become a favorite author of mine. Her books are thought provoking and the plots she comes up with are so good. Just like her other books, I felt like I was back in Ireland when reading it. I could easily picture areas and the fictional people in the book. I love when authors write in a way that pulls you right into the story. This is a must read that I will be recommending to all.

This is a really good book! The complex story takes place in Ireland, where several young women have gone missing. No spoilers! This is my first novel by the author, and I am looking forward to reading more. Recommended!

Tense and twisty, and a little disturbing. While some of the middle chapters lag a little bit, especially the Angela sections, it was still a book I had a hard time putting down and I was so eager to get the answers and then so shocked by the final reveals! Definitely recommended.

Lucy will do anything to find her sister, Nicki, who has been missing for over a year.
The story follows Operation Tide, the search for a serial killer, the missing girls, and their families.

I thought this was a unique perspective on the missing girl trope and the people left behind, and I especially loved the chapters from the POV of the serial killer himself, but at times I found the story moving so slow. There were a lot of people, names, and stories that I had to keep up with, and while they do all connect, it was just a lot going on while not a lot going on at the same time.

For me, especially with a thriller, I don't LOVE an open ending. I know some people will be okay with that, but I just think I would have liked things to be wrapped up a little bit tighter. All in all, this was enjoyable and unique, and I would recommend to other readers.

I was absolutely floored by this book. In all honesty, I did not enjoy Howard's pandemic book -- 56 Days -- but the premise of this novel was enticing, so I decided to give it a chance. After reading this one, I will be reading everything Howard puts out. This book has such good character development and a straightforward narrative. The double twist completely surprised me. I truly enjoyed the alternating character narratives, which included the story from the eyes of the killer. I have no complaints. This was a very easy to binge book.

Lucy's sister, Nikki, went missing over a year ago. She was at a bar with friends and then just...disappeared. Nikki joined a growing list of women in Dublin who have vanished without a trace.

Reeling with grief and perhaps, a little guilt, Lucy spends her nights trying to trap a killer or kidnapper, and her days working with other families who have lost their daughters, mothers, and friends.

While The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard was a fast-paced thriller with a twist at every turn, I felt that there was some disconnect between all of the storylines. I didn't care about Angels and Detective Pope, despite their work with the Missing Persons Unit. That could be it's own book/series. The missing sister is the more interesting of the storylines and the....TWIST took that storyline into another atmosphere.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I don't really like summarizing thrillers, because I personally enjoy going into them blind so much more than knowing the outline of the story in advance. So I'll skip the summary here and just say that this one was a GREAT time! Like all Catherine Ryan Howard books, the pace is lightning-fast and I didn't want to put it down at all. I had no clue who the killer was until it was revealed, pretty much suspecting every single character in the book at one point or another. There's one twist in particular at the end that knocked me flat because I did NOT see it coming!! An all-around good time and one heck of a single-sitting summer read. Highly recommend it!

Thank you to Catherine Ryan Howard, Blackstone Publishing, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.

Over the last several years, at least three women have gone missing from Dublin and the surrounding area. Lucy’s sister Nicki is one of those women who disappeared without a trace, and even with a task force, the police don’t seem to be making much headway into solving the case. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Lucy decides to do whatever it takes to find out what happened to Nicki, even if she finds herself in grave danger.

Wow!! This is my first Catherine Ryan Howard novel, but it definitely won’t be my last! I devoured this taut, twisty thriller. The narrative uses multiple POVs to great effect, giving us not just Lucy as a main character, but also Angela (an ambitious civilian in the Missing Persons Unit), and best of all, the perpetrator. All of the perspectives are great, but his sections are the very best – dark, chilling, and sociopathic. So creepy, but I couldn’t get enough! I read so many thrillers that it’s hard to feel surprised, so believe me when I say The Trap is an unputdownable, heart-pounding, genuinely thrilling entry into this crowded genre. The plot is perfectly paced and so clever, delivering a truly shocking twist that I can honestly say I never saw coming but made brilliant sense once it was revealed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me an advance copy of this book and giving me the opportunity to discover this talented author! I can’t wait to dig into CRH’s backlog – 56 Days and The Nothing Man are going on my TBR list immediately!

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this thriller set in Ireland right up until about the 90% mark. At that point, I really struggled to keep going.

I’m a huge fan of Catherine Ryan Howard’s writing, and even though this one missed the mark for me, I’ll continue to read her books.

This may be a winner for you, though, so if it sounds interesting, give it a whirl.

My thanks to @blackstonepublishing and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

While reading The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard, it took me on a dark and twisty ride, that took you on the hunt for a lost sister and into the mind of a serial killer. This book is told from multiple view points: Lucy who is looking for her missing sister Nicki and will stop at nothing to get the answers she needs in regard to her disappearance; Angela, who works in the Missing Persons Unit, but feels that something isn't adding up in the case of the three missing women; and a mysterious man, driving down the dark roads, with a story to tell. This book will have you drawn in from the first pages, until the end. You may think you know the story of how these women went missing, but read The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard and you will see just how wrong you were.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy of The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard in exchange for honest review.

Solid thriller but not as good as her last book. I felt like the ending was lacking. Still a good read if you like serial killer thrillers. I did like how the author really let the reader see inside the killer's head.

This book was a slow start for me. I would recommend it to her fans, but it wasn’t a personal favorite.

Different points of views in this thriller and one is the killer!
This was such a fast paced, oh my goodness, can’t put down read! All the elements of a good psychological thriller.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a really great read. She is a master storyteller. This was one of my favorite books by her. I love the setting and characters.

Such a great thriller. I honestly couldn't put it down. The characters were crisp and smartly written. Loved it.

Wow! Such a twisted ending to a great story. I didn’t see any of it coming until it ran
Me over. 5/5.